Widener University law dean Linda Ammons
Law faculties recruited to anti-smoking squads
October 27, 2009
Faculty members at Widener University School of Law will have a new role to play next academic year: smoking police.
They won't have matching uniforms or extensive training. They will be armed with small cards that detail the school's impending ban on smoking or using tobacco products anywhere on campus, indoors and outdoors. If that's not enough to keep people from lighting up on campus, repeat offenders might be fined, said Linda L. Ammons, the law school's dean.
Widener is one of a growing number of law schools that are getting tough on smoking by students, faculty, staff and visitors. Most law schools already prohibit smoking inside and near buildings, but at least three are preparing to become completely smoke-free campuses next summer. At least five already are. According to the American Lung Association, 176 colleges and universities in the United States are now fully smoke-free.
In addition to Widener, which has campuses in Wilmington, Del., and Harrisburg, Pa., Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and the University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville, Fla., are preparing to ban all smoking effective in July. The University of Iowa College of Law, the University of Arkansas School of Law, the Oklahoma City University School of Law, the Indiana University Maurer School of Law-Bloomington and Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis each went totally smoke-free last year. Some of these bans are the result of new university-wide policies, while others were spurred by state law.
The smoking ban at the University of Arkansas had a significant effect on campus, said law school communications director Andy Albertson, who served on a committee that recommended the smoking ban.
"You just don't see people smoking on campus much anymore," he said.
Enforcement has been an issue in a few rare cases, Albertson said. Like most schools that prohibit smoking, Arkansas relies primarily on self-policing to keep the tobacco at bay. Some faculty members choose to inform smokers of the policy, while others choose not to get involved.
"There is no official enforcement. We more or less rely on peer pressure and the fact that this is a university policy," Albertson said. "By and large, that works."
There remain a few persistent smokers in out-of-the-way doorways, below-ground exits and loading docks, he said. The school is looking for ways to improve enforcement.
Enforcement largely is left up to students and faculty at the University of Iowa, said spokesman Tom Moore. Since the school's ban went into effect in July 2008, campus police have issued just a handful of citations to those who continued to smoke despite warnings.
Administrators at several smoke-free schools reported surprisingly little pushback from students and workers when the bans were announced, although some concerns were voiced.
Widener administrators met with the board of the Student Bar Association, which had some questions about the ban, Ammons said. The students were receptive to the idea following that meeting, she said.
Like most of the other law schools that have prohibited smoking, Widener plans to offer faculty, staff and students counseling and referrals to tobacco-cessation programs.
"We want Widener to be a healthy campus," Ammons said. "Because law school is so stressful to begin with, you need to be as healthy as you possibly can be. We want an environment that is conducive to that."
For schools getting ready to go smoke-free, Albertson recommends giving staff and students plenty of advance warning and coming up with a real enforcement process.
Karen Sloan can be reached at ksloan@alm.com.
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